Progress in Saudi Arabia

Prince Turki al-Faisal examines the battle for a new, modern kingdom.

How long can Saudi Arabia remain a land of contradictions? For decades the country has been torn between its strong, traditional values and a push toward modernisation and change.

Outsiders see the kingdom as upholding outdated societal standards while the country's conservative religious clerics criticise the country's leadership for straying too far from its Islamic roots.

Saudi Arabia just opened its first co-ed university, where male and female students will share classrooms for the first time. Yet women in the country still cannot study without the permission of their male guardians.